Some VIPs who use Gmail — including high-ranking U.S. officials — had their email accounts hacked in a phishing scam that apparently originated from China, Google announced in a blog post on Wednesday.

The “campaign,” as Google called it, affected hundreds of users “including, among others, senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists.”

Google stressed that the overall security of Gmail isn’t in doubt. Instead, the hackers persuaded victims to fork over their passwords, and then took it from there, Google said.

The perpetrators used access to the email accounts to “monitor the contents of these users’ emails, with the perpetrators apparently using stolen passwords to change peoples’ forwarding and delegation settings. (Gmail enables you to forward your emails automatically, as well as grant others access to your account.)”

The search giant used the incident to issue a warning to the broader community of Gmail users: Toughen up your password:

“Please spend 10 minutes today taking steps to improve your online security,” the company implored, “so that you can experience all that the Internet offers — while also protecting your data.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 9:16 p.m. on June 1, 2011.